Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?
How important is student engagement to you view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Please construct each paragraph so that the reader can understand what you focused your observations on without having seen the original questions. - fogleman
Observations:
Today I observed the students at LMS while they had their NECAP testing. This was the last day of the testing so the students knew they had to enter the room silently, sit down, and start the test because they were being monitored by other teachers and the principle. After they finished the test, if they had time before the end of the period they had to read a book silently, no bathroom breaks.
In the past, however, the students were not as attentive. An example of this was during the lab on "Cerealities" I noticed while my CT gave directions a few of the students were preoccupied with everything else, talking to a friend, writing on themselves with markers, staring out the window, you get the picture. Some students were paying attention and listening to directions but I was informed that in this "B" group holding their attention for long is challenging (my CT informed me that the "B" groups work best when there is silence and they work independently because of the distractions and temptation to talk of get off focus) . My CT stopped what she was doing and calmly told the students that if they miss a lab because they were not behaving, than it counts as failing quiz grade. If she had to stop again the students who were disruptive would get lunch detention. The talking and distracting behavior stopped for the most part but I noticed that one student was staring at his desk picking his nose, a few were "looking straight through" my CT, and a pair of students in the back of the class were leaning back on their chairs and rocking.After the directions were given probably half the class went up to my CT and asked what they were supposed to be doing. My CT was patient and repeated the directions. In this lab students had to classify cereals and make a poster to display. Some students were just playing with the cereal, some were eating it, but surprisingly most of them sat silently and completed their independent project. My CT displayed some posters that were done in the past so students had examples to look at. I think this worked as a extrinsic motivator for students. Reflections: For me student engagement is important in the classroom. Personally, I believe that the amount of student learning and development in the classroom is proportional to student involvement. If students are not involved, focused, or interested in an activity/subject, I do not think they will be willing or have ambition to participate or learn. As a result students who are not engaged will not retain information. Students need to have a desire to learn about problems, solve them, and persist when faced with obstacles. When I am a teacher I will try to keep students on task and engaged, although learning differences and disabilities make it a bit challenging. I will try my best to obtain students interest by connecting matter to the real world or teaching about science careers. Maybe if I show students my own love of scientific inquiry it may motivate students to actively participate in activities and really process what is happening. I could open a lab with a demonstration to get students intersted and wanting to know more about why and how things happen. I have already been thinking that with the "B" groups, one strategy that might keep these students on task and make more use of class time is to write or display directions for the students who have a hard time paying attention. I must say that my CT does a great job balancing the curriculum with reading, writing, labs, and discussions.
Class Topic: engaging students Grade: 6 Observed by: Talia Delmonico
Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?How important is student engagement to you view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Please construct each paragraph so that the reader can understand what you focused your observations on without having seen the original questions. -
Observations:
Today I observed the students at LMS while they had their NECAP testing. This was the last day of the testing so the students knew they had to enter the room silently, sit down, and start the test because they were being monitored by other teachers and the principle. After they finished the test, if they had time before the end of the period they had to read a book silently, no bathroom breaks.In the past, however, the students were not as attentive. An example of this was during the lab on "Cerealities" I noticed while my CT gave directions a few of the students were preoccupied with everything else, talking to a friend, writing on themselves with markers, staring out the window, you get the picture. Some students were paying attention and listening to directions but I was informed that in this "B" group holding their attention for long is challenging (my CT informed me that the "B" groups work best when there is silence and they work independently because of the distractions and temptation to talk of get off focus) . My CT stopped what she was doing and calmly told the students that if they miss a lab because they were not behaving, than it counts as failing quiz grade. If she had to stop again the students who were disruptive would get lunch detention. The talking and distracting behavior stopped for the most part but I noticed that one student was staring at his desk picking his nose, a few were "looking straight through" my CT, and a pair of students in the back of the class were leaning back on their chairs and rocking.After the directions were given probably half the class went up to my CT and asked what they were supposed to be doing. My CT was patient and repeated the directions. In this lab students had to classify cereals and make a poster to display. Some students were just playing with the cereal, some were eating it, but surprisingly most of them sat silently and completed their independent project. My CT displayed some posters that were done in the past so students had examples to look at. I think this worked as a extrinsic motivator for students.
Reflections:
For me student engagement is important in the classroom. Personally, I believe that the amount of student learning and development in the classroom is proportional to student involvement. If students are not involved, focused, or interested in an activity/subject, I do not think they will be willing or have ambition to participate or learn. As a result students who are not engaged will not retain information. Students need to have a desire to learn about problems, solve them, and persist when faced with obstacles. When I am a teacher I will try to keep students on task and engaged, although learning differences and disabilities make it a bit challenging. I will try my best to obtain students interest by connecting matter to the real world or teaching about science careers. Maybe if I show students my own love of scientific inquiry it may motivate students to actively participate in activities and really process what is happening. I could open a lab with a demonstration to get students intersted and wanting to know more about why and how things happen. I have already been thinking that with the "B" groups, one strategy that might keep these students on task and make more use of class time is to write or display directions for the students who have a hard time paying attention. I must say that my CT does a great job balancing the curriculum with reading, writing, labs, and discussions.
Class Topic: engaging students Grade: 6 Observed by: Talia Delmonico